Driving down accidents
June 1st 2008 The size and weight of vehicles, visibility and stability issues surrounding their operation and a noisy, hectic environment make transport safety a particular challenge on construction sites, says RoSPA's Roger Bibbings
Provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that 52 workers and 14 members of the public were killed in workplace transport accidents in 2006/07. For workers, the breakdown of these fatal injuries was as follows:
- Struck by a moving vehicle: 30 (forward, 13; reverse, 6;
- overturn, 1; runaway, 7; unknown, 3)
- Collapse/overturn of a vehicle: 5
- People falling from a vehicle: 2
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- Hit against part of vehicle whilst travelling in it: 7
- Being struck by a moving vehicle was the third most common cause of fatality among the 241 workers who were killed in total in 2006/07, coming after falling from a height and being struck by a moving or falling object.
It must also be remembered that thousands of people suffer other injuries related to workplace transport. Incidents reported to the HSE show that 1,518 workers (employees: 1,449; self-employed: 69) sustained major workplace transport injuries in 2006/07, with a further 4,233 workers (employees: 4,196; self-employed: 37) suffering over-3-day workplace transport injuries. More than 150 members of the public were also hurt.
Of the 77 worker fatalities in the construction industry in 2006/07, the provisional figures show that five deaths were due to workers being struck by a moving vehicle.
What is being done about it ?
After considering the number of injuries, a key question to pose is: what is being done to prevent accidents involving workplace transport?
There have been some important moves recently to facilitate the exchange of information about managing workplace transport risks.
RoSPA and the HSE hosted a conference entitled "Managing Workplace Transport Risks: A Matter of Life and Death" in May. The joint event reflected a commitment to workplace transport safety across industry areas. In fact, there is a target to reduce workplace transport injuries by five per cent as a contribution to the HSE's efforts to reduce all fatal and major injuires by three per cent by 2008 (from the 2004 figure).
Specific initiatives have been launched to enable this target to be achieved. For example, reducing "struck by" accidents was an HSE priority in 2006/07 and preventing falls from vehicles a priority for 2007/08.
And, in an example of an industry-focused move, site transport featured on the HSE's construction division priority programme for 2004/05. The aim was to "reduce the risk to workers and members of the public from being struck by mobile construction plant and vehicles through the promotion of effective planning of site layout and design, vehicle procurement, and training."
Sources of help
Individual firms need to consider a wide range of issues in the management of workplace transport risks, as indicated by the number of vehicles-at-work-related factsheets (23) and items of suggested further reading (17) mentioned on the HSE's website.
Because of this, some health and safety or site managers no doubt lack confidence in their ability to identify the hazards correctly, assess the risks and implement the right control measures to ensure the safe management of vehicles in the workplace.
In addition to taking part in events such as the Managing Workplace Transport Risks conference and running issuespecific campaigns, the HSE has developed a comprehensive section on its website that is dedicated to the use of vehicles at work. The online information includes statistics and frequently asked questions, as well as the "Route Map", which brings together details of legislation, guidance and good practice that could be useful in the management of workplace transport risks across all industry sectors.
Launched last year, the Route Map did not duplicate or replace existing guidance, such as "Workplace transport safety: An employers' guide" (HSG136), nor did it introduce new regulatory requirements. Instead, it was designed to provide easy directions to existing information.
Four key messages
The Route Map covers four core issues in the management of workplace transport, each one being backed up by key messages:
Carol Grainger of the HSE outlined the Route Map at the Managing Workplace Transport Risks conference. She also drew delegates' attention to the free HSE/Freight Transport Association advice line, which enables people to talk through site-specific isuses with an expert, including, if preferred, on an anonymous basis.
Systems and culture
As with health and safety in general, managing workplace transport effectively, cannot be achieved by one-off interventions such as putting staff through a training course or implementing a one-way system.
Therefore, before you start looking for hazards, assessing risks and reviewing your precautions, you need to look at whether a robust system – the policies, people and procedures – is in place for managing health and safety on an on-going basis. Underpinning such a system should be a positive safety culture, encompassing everyone from boardlevel directors and on-site managers to the workforce.
The importance of strong leadership and good supervision was cited at the recent conference. And in securing cultural change (perhaps, for example, a move away from the rushing culture that is often associated with working with vehicles), it is also crucial that employers think creatively about how to involve their workforce in the management of workplace transport.
Working together to develop a good health and safety culture has to be a team effort, with ownership and commitment to safety also extending to other firms, including clients, suppliers or contractors. It is only through working together to prevent workplace transport accidents that significant and sustained improvements can come about, lives can be saved and injuries reduced. More articles from RoSPA: | 
